Many waters contain alkaline earth metal cations, such as barium, strontium, calcium and magnesium, and anions, such as sulfate, bicarbonate, carbonate, phosphate, and fluoride. When combinations of these anions and cations are present in concentrations which exceed the solubility product of the various species which may be formed, precipitates form until the respective solubility products are no longer exceeded. For example, when the concentrations of the barium and sulfate ions exceed the solubility product of barium sulfate, a solid phase of barium sulfate will form as a precipitate. Solubility products are exceeded for various reasons, such as evaporation of the water phase, change in pH, pressure or temperature and the introduction of additional ions which can form insoluble compounds with the ions already present in the solution.
As these reaction products precipitate on the surfaces of the water-carrying or water-containing system, they form adherent deposits or scale. Scale may prevent effective heat transfer, interfere with fluid flow, facilitate corrosive processes, or harbor bacteria. Scale is an expensive problem in many industrial water systems, in production systems for oil and gas, in pulp and paper mill systems, and in other systems, causing delays and shutdowns for cleaning and removal.
Barium and strontium sulfate scale deposits present a unique and particularly intractable problem. Under most conditions, these sulfates are considerably less soluble in all solvents than any of the other commonly encountered scale-forming compounds, as shown by the comparative solubilities given in Table 1 below.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Comparative Solubilities, 25.degree. C. in Water. Scale Solubility, mg./l. ______________________________________ Gypsum 2080.0 Strontium sulfate 140.0 Calcium Carbonate 14.0 Barium sulfate 2.3 ______________________________________
It is generally acknowledged that barium sulfate scale is extremely difficult to remove chemically, especially within reasonably short periods of time. Solvents which have been found to work generally take a long time to reach an equilibrium concentration of dissolved barium sulfate, which itself is usually of a relatively low order. Consequently, barium sulfate must be removed mechanically or the equipment, e.g. pipes, etc., containing the deposit must be discarded.
The incidence of barium sulfate scale is worldwide, and it occurs principally in systems handling subsurface waters. Because of this, the barium sulfate scale problem is of particular concern to the petroleum industry as water is generally produced with petroleum. As time goes on, more petroleum is produced by the waterflooding method of secondary recovery, implying even greater volumes of produced water. Scale may occur in many different places, including production tubing, well bore perforations, the area near the well bore, gathering lines, meters, valves and in other production equipment. Barium sulfate scale may also form within subterranean formations such as in disposal wells. Scales and deposits can be formed to such an extent that the permeability of the formation is impaired resulting in lower flow rates, higher pump pressures, and ultimately abandonment of the well.
Barium sulfate scale is particularly troublesome when sulphate-rich seawater is used as an injection fluid in oil wells whose formation water is rich in barium ions. This particular aspect of the barium scale problem is severe in some U.S. oil fields as well as some older North Sea oil fields. Scaling of this nature is also expected to occur during advanced production stages in other North Sea fields particularly after seawater breakthrough has taken place.
Another problem associated with the formation of barium and strontium sulfate scales is that radium, another member of the alkaline earth group of metals, tends to be deposited at the same time so that the equipment becomes radioactive. Eventually the equipment may become unusable for safety reasons alone. At present, a considerable amount of oil field tubular goods are in this condition and cannot be readily restored to usable condition because of the difficulty of removing the radioactive scale.
Various proposals have been made in the past for removing barium sulfate scale chemically. Most of these processes have utilized chelating or complexing agents, principally the polyaminopolycarboxylic acids such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) or diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,877,848 (Case) discloses the use of EDTA in combination with various surfactants for this purpose. U.S. Pat. No. 3,660,287 (Quattrini) discloses the use of EDTA and DTPA in the presence of carbonate ion at relatively neutral pH (6.5-9.5) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,805 (D'Muhala) discloses a process for the removal of barium sulfate scale by sequestration using an aqueous solution of citric acid, a polycarboxylic acid such as carbazic acid, and an alkylene-polyaminopolycarboxylic acid such as EDTA or DTPA. The preferred aqueous sequestering solutions have a pH in the range of about 9.5 to about 14, provided by a base such as potassium hydroxide or potassium carbonate.
Another approach which has recently been made is to use a polyether in combination with the aminopolycarboxylic acid. U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,462 (deJong) discloses that barium sulfate scale can be removed from remote locations extending into a subterranean earth formation by contacting the scale with an aqueous solution consisting essentially of water, a monovalent cation salt of a monocyclic macroyclic polyamine containing at least two nitrogen-linked carboxymethyl groups and enough monovalent basic compound to provide a solution pH of about 8. Similar disclosures are to be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,215,000 and 4,288,333. These polyether materials have, however, the disadvantage of being costly which is a severe drawback for oil field use where cost is a major factor.
Although many of these known compositions will remove scale, the rate of dissolution is slow and the amount of scale dissolved is small. Therefore, what is needed is a liquid membrane system that uses chelating agents in combination with a catalyst to remove scale at a substantially increased rate and a high capacity.